The Fat Man in History - Softcover

The stories in Peter Carey's collection are bizarre, funny and chilling. Their landscape is exotic and surreal, an ominous near-future that has the distinct feel of contemporary life. Carey's narratives are an exhilarating blend of fable, fantasy and allegory in which, as in dreams, something odd and menacing takes control. Here are societies in which people gamble for new bodies in a genetic lottery or watch apprehensively as first buildings, then parts of the landscape, and eventually their neighbours, begin to dematerialise and vanish. Here is what happens when a miniature replica of a small town and its inhabitants assumes a more compelling reality than its original or when a group of fat men, ostracised by a revolutionary government, plot its overthrow.

Peter Carey was born in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria and now lives in New York. He is the author of twelve previous novels, three short story collections and two books on travel. Among other prizes, he has won the Booker Prize twice, the Commonwealth Writers Prize twice and the Miles Franklin Literary Award three times.